Yellow Paper
by macchime
Summary: A girl finds herself in possession of the Elysian Box before Professor Layton and Luke, or even Layton's mentor! What will happen? This is macchi-chan's first story!
1. The Girl

Hello everyone! This is macchi-chan's first attempt at a (completed) story...ish...thingie. But oh well! I wrote this at about 11:45 on New Year's Eve, 2010, so this is kinda old...please enjoy! And I'd reallllllly like to know if I should continue writing. Oh well.

BTW I sorta see this as a Prof. Layton and the Diabolical Box spin-off...like what happens to a girl after opening the box. And even though the box might not be ebony, I like to see it that way...

ITS OFFICIAL! I, MACCHI-SAMA, AM CONTINUING THE STORY! I really hope you will enjoy it…

Oh . Ya. I don't own any of the Prof. Layton games or the movie. Wish I did...but I spend too much time trying to SOLVE the puzzles, much less CREATE them!

But, I do own the girl. And her shoes. And her glasses. And her braids. And the paper. And the house. And the newspaper. Not the town, though...wow. I sound so stinkin' stalkerish...

Yellow Paper

The girl slowly lifts off the lid of the ornate ebony box. She gently sets aside the jewel encrusted slab of wood, then peers inside the box. What she finds seems ordinary…enough. The small scrap of paper, yellowed with age, curls up at the sudden touch of the girl's pale hand. Her hand recoils as the paper reacts, then she leans forward, her two long dark braids hanging down on either side of her head. The girl reaches back inside the box and gingerly takes out the scrap of paper. She places it on the table next to her, then turns around to examine it. As she carefully unrolls the paper, she begins to see a note, perhaps left behind by an ancestor or something of the sort. Amazed, she peers at the handwriting through her thick glasses, trying to make sense of it.

They are coming here, we were told.

They are almost upon our doorsteps, we were told.

But did we listen? Of course not…what generation ever heeds the advice of their elders?

Maybe yours, or someone else's.

But certainly not ours.

And we have certainly paid the price.

So learn from us, and don't make our mistake.

**They are coming. **

**They are almost upon your doorstep.**

**Take heed.**

**Or your life as you know it is forfeit.**

The girl, even paler than she had been, throws the scrap of paper onto the ground and grinds it underneath the heel of her shoe, then runs out of the run-down house she had entered just half an hour earlier. She appears to be chased by something…or somethings?

The next day, it appears in the local paper that a young girl from the town has disappeared. All that is left of her are a pair of thick glasses, a pair of thick-soled shoes, and a strange ebony box. Does anyone care? Of course not. Who would? Many children disappear every day.

Which town was this, you ask? You, of all people, should know.

**It was yours.**

So...ya. That was Yellow Paper, by the amazing Macchi-sama! Who is ex-tremely fond of cheese...and anime...and manga...wait...wha-?Oh well. I give up trying to understand myself. Please read, rate, and tell me whether I should continue to write...stuff. (if you say I should, there is an extreme chance of me spazzing later...)

(.)/


	2. The Boy

**MACCHI-SAMA IS BAAAACK! **

Yaay! I finished the second chapter! Probably just one or two left to do…Thank you SO MUCH TO:

**BetsyFriday**

**MakaEvans95**

**XxSoulNoteWriterxX**

**Kirbella**

I am extremely glad that I got as many reviews as I did for my first story…

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Yellow Paper ch.2

Remember how no one noticed that the girl had disappeared?

**I lied.**

Someone DID notice the girl's absence.

During the middle of the next day, the boy with the same face as the girl notices. How? No one knows, but they aren't sure they are glad that he did. He blows a lock of unruly dark hair out of his eyes as he goes down to the house he knew his sister was last seen in. He slams open the door as he realizes the house is empty-it always has been. Or has it? The only signs of any recent activity are a pair of thick glasses and a pair of shoes lying prostrate on the ground. He leans down to pick them up, but he notices a box made out of dark wood on the table in front of him, covered in dust. He stands up, walks over, blows off the dust, and gently touches the lid of the box. He then picks it up and begins toying with the catch on the lid, wondering whether to open it or not.

He opens it.

What he finds is something so odd, yet so normal, he decides to play along.

A key.

He takes the key out of the box as he looks around for any possible hole throughout the room where the key just might fit. He searches all over the room, over things, beside things, under things, until he finds the keyhole. The hole happens to be hidden under the table itself. The boy smiles to himself and inserts the key, then turns it. His attention is drawn to a sliver of light which appears to be coming from under a floorboard sticking partially up out of the floor. The boy walks over cautiously, his brow knitted in confusion, then pries up the board. The light grows stronger, so he looks away as he tugs once, twice, and the board comes up. As the light dims, he looks back at the hole he has created. Under the floor shines a light not unlike the light we get from our own sun. Hesitating, the boy considers his options then thrusts his head into the area under the floor.

He falls, and falls, and falls…up?

He finds himself lying on a grassy field with his head aching terribly. He opens his eyes and squints at the surrounding area. A dark blur crosses his line of view. A…girl? With the same face as his? He blinks again and again, then gives up and closes his eyes.

"…Where am I?"

The reply astonishes him.

"I had been hoping you could tell me."

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**(A/N)** Okay. I've been wondering what in the name of cheese pie (A/N) actually means…So. Expect chapter 3 to appear soon! Thank you so much for helping me out BetsyFriday especially!


	3. The Cloud

**Macchi-sama rambles…**

Okie dokie! Macchi-chan is pretty satisfied with this chapter! And I shall ramble more at the end of the chapter!

Many thanks to:

**BetsyFriday**

**MakaEvans95**

**Kirbella**

**WriterCat**

**XxSoulNoteWriterxX**

And thanks to everyone else who favorited and followed me and/or my story!

Oh. Ya. Disclaimers. Did you know that when people review my stories I get money to buy V-raptors and hire more people to disclaim my stories? Howeva, not that many people have reviewed, so I hired my two favorite V-raptors. But they got sick, so I had to get my OC **Edel **from my other fanfic **LUKE TRITON and the Scientist's Sister**. (if you haven't read it, please do! I've worked very hard on my first romance story and it only has 3 reviews…)

Edel-…I messed up last time, but I will do it this time! *turns bright red with effort* MACCHI-SAMA DOES NOT OWN PROFESSOR LAYTON OR ANYTHING ELSE ASSOCIATED WITH IT! *deep breath* BUT SHE DOES OWN THE PLOT AND THE GIRL AND THE BOY AND THE CLOUD (Kami forbid) SO NO ONE COME UP AND SHOOT HER OR I DIE TOO!

Macchi-good job, Edel. (she did pretty bad last time…)

Yellow Paper ch.3

The boy stared up at the girl, confused.

"Tell…you?"

"Yes…"

"I don't even know who you are!"

The girl looked around, then back at him. "I don't remember much, but I do know that my name is Miriam. What's yours?" The boy watched Miriam's dark braids swing back and forth as they moved around frantically as he answered distractedly, "Mine's Thomas. How did you get here? All I remember is a key, a light, and falling up."

Miriam's eyes fell to the ground and began to tear up. I was chased here…by dark things. I don't know what they were bu-" Her head snapped up and her gaze darted from place to place as she spoke frantically. "They're here. We have to get away. NOW!" She leapt to her feet and grabbed Thomas's arm. "Come on!" Thomas stumbled as she dragged him across the field, the strange notion forming in his head that this had happened many, many times before.

His head swiveled back to look at the strange creatures following him. In fact, they couldn't even be classified as 'creatures,' because for all that he could tell, there was simply a large cloud of…nothing. That's simply what it was. Nothing. A giant, shifting, _living _cloud of _nothing._ Thomas turned back to look at the girl…no, she had a name. Miriam. Why is that name so familiar? As his attention was turned back to the cloud, Miriam spoke up in a hurried, shaking voice. "I think that we know each other. That's probably why we seem so familiar to each other. However, I'd love to stop and chat about it, but as you have most likely noticed that we are currently being followed by nothing, we need to keep going."

Thomas caught himself smiling at the girl's darker sense of humor. The identical duo ran along until they collapsed in the hollow of a tree. Apparently, the cloud wasn't very smart, because it passed right by them. James and Miriam looked at each other in bewilderment, then at noticing each other's faces, both broke out in to nervous, yet relieved laughter. After a few moments of laughing their hearts out, they both suddenly stopped. "So…how do we get back?" "I have no ide…wait, back to where?" Thomas looked at the girl, brows knit in confusion. "Thomas, don't you remember? Back to our home…" Miriam shook her head, confused by her own words.

"Hey, Miriam, did you get clipped by the cloud earlier?" Thomas referred to a few moments earlier, when he had pulled Miriam into the hollow tree. She had begun to screech in pain as he pulled her, but he had covered her mouth with his hand, causing her to bite it instead. Thomas grimaced in pain as his wounded hand brushed up against the girl's long, soft hair which had come undone during their mad scramble for their lives. Miriam though about it, then nodded. "Come to think of it, yes. I was nicked, but just barely. On the back of my leg." Miriam shifted to where they could see the back of her leg in the sparse light let into the hollow. The two both gasped as they saw the effect of contact with the cloud.

A section of the back of her leg, even the muscle and bone.

It was completely gone.

**Okey dokey! **I said it again…thank you SO MUCH for my FanFiction BFF **BetsyFriday**!

Also, please R&R! And read my other fics! Love 'ya! Baibai!


	4. The End

**Macchi-chan cries.**

This is the end of Yellow Paper. But in another sense, it is the middle of another couple of stories. Thank you so much to all of my few faithful reviewers, Edel, and my 101 V-raptors. And my brother Holt. On Vivosaur Island. Aren't you all glad that he didn't take me there too? At least I get to visit once in a while…Steve, Suu, take it away.

Edel-I would like to help…Macchi-chan is especially thankful to

**BetsyFriday**

**MakaEvans95**

**XxSoulNoteWriterxX**

**Kirbella**

**WriterCat**

Edel(continues)-Thank you so much for following her all these…one and a half weeks?

Steve/Suu-! (Macchi-dono does not own Professor Layton, the Elysian Box, Fossil Fighters (source of Holt), nor 1/100 of the storyline. She DOES own everything else, though.)

Macchi-Thank you, Steve, Suu, Edel. Oh, ya. There is a special surprise ending to this. I hope you enjoy!

Also, look for Momo Sakurane in **xJun-Chanx**'s new Vocaloid fanfic **New Kind of Chorus! **Ya. Momo is my wonderful OC that will appear in chapter 4 xJun-Chanx said…can't wait!

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Yellow Paper Ch.4

Thomas and Miriam stared, mouths agape at the missing portion of Miriam's leg. "…Does it hurt?" Miriam shook her head, then poked the area. Her index finger went straight through the missing area and poked only the exposed muscle and sinew. There was a small _hss_ing sound, and the tip of Miriam's finger, the one that had poked her leg, went missing as well. It didn't fade away, it was simply…gone. She gasped along with Thomas, then Miriam began to speak.

"It's the strangest thing…before, when I had lost that bit on my leg, the only thing I could remember was my name and the fact that you look like I should know you. Now, I know that we don't belong here, and that…that _thing _is connected to both of us coming here and is the way for us to get out of here." Thomas nodded, taking it all in. "So, if you remember more every time you get touched by that thing, what would happen if we let it cover us completely?"

The girl's grave face frightened him. "You know very well what would happen. We would disappear, if not be completely eradicated." Thomas sighed and let his head fall back. "But how will we get out of here then?" Miriam bit her lip and replied, "You said it yourself. As you can see, if we stay here, we will always be on the run from the cloud. But if we let ourselves be caught, at least we won't have to live afraid all of the time."

Thomas pondered what the girl had said. "I think you're right. I'd rather not be around at all if it meant that I had to live in fear for the rest of my life." Miriam nodded, and looked at the ground. "Thomas, I'll miss you. I feel…connected in some way, and I don't know how, but I know everything will be okay." Thomas, in a spur of the moment, leaned over and hugged the identical girl sitting next to him. "Yeah, I feel the same way. But you know what? I _know_ that wherever we turn up next, sooner or later, we'll both be happy. So, shall we?"

The two looked outside the hollow. Apparently, the cloud had wised up, because it waited right outside the opening as if it knew that it would win one day or another. The two looked at each other, took a deep breath, then each stuck a single hand into the cloud and watched their hands break apart into miniscule pieces which were swept away into the cloud. A moment later, they jumped into the cloud, holding hands, and watched each other be swept away into nothing.

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Somewhere, in the town that you live in, a pair of twins wake up holding hands in the living room of a large abandoned house. The boy with the same dark eyes and hair as his sister sits up and looks around. He turns and shakes the shoulder of his sister, motioning for her to get up so that they can leave the place. The girl with long, dark braids sits up and finds that under their intertwined hands, there is a mysterious dark wooden box. The twins look into each other's eyes and a flood of memories rush into their minds. They scramble to their feet and embrace each other, relieved that both halves had survived. Taking the box, they run out of the house and swear to each other that they _will _leave this town, for who had even noticed their departure?

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Twenty years later, a dark-haired man, for he is no longer a boy, knocks on the door of a home in London. The twins had, indeed, left their hometown to find a better place for them to live. A woman with twin braids and a fair-haired baby on her hip opens the door and greets her brother, allowing him into her house. "Thomas! I haven't seen you in such a long time! How have you been doing? I'm sorry if you came to see Matthew, because he's at work right now…" Thomas smiles, and hands a picture of a dark ebony box to his sister. Her eyes grow wide as she takes it and she sits down in a soft chair conveniently right next to her.

"I-I thought we had disposed of it…had you taken a picture of it? Before we got rid of it, I mean…" Thomas continues to smile with a secret, which he quickly confides to his sister. "Today at the university, one of my friends-you know him, don't you? Herschel Layton? In the Archaeology Department? Of course you do. Well, it turns out that the man we had given it to is his mentor. Eventually, after a very long trip, the box-the Elysian box, it was called-fell into his and Luke's hands. They discovered that when it had been made, a chemical in the form of a gas had been absorbed into it. Apparently, this gas causes hallucinations."

Miriam sagged slightly in the chair, but not as to disturb the baby at her side. "So that's what did it. That's why it happened all those years ago. Oh, it makes so much sense…and you say Luke was involved in all of that? Poor child…oh!" Miriam looks at the clock. "So Luke is finally back from his escapades with the Professor?" She stands up, hands Thomas his niece, and peers out the door, clapping her hands together excitedly. "Oh! Finally! Matthew's back!" Miriam opens the door wide then drops to her knees as her blue-clothed son runs into her arms and hugs her as tears stream down her cheeks. "You're finally home…you will have to tell me all about what happened after dinner tonight!" Her son takes off his blue cap as he and his mother walk off to the kitchen for a quick snack.

Thomas sets his niece in her cradle by her mother's chair as his brother-in-law walks up to him. "Thomas, I have something to tell Miriam. But you have the same right to know as she does." The brown-haired man looks down, obviously upset. "Thomas, I'm being transferred. Across the sea to America." Thomas bites his lip, all pretense of a good mood evaporated. "In how long?" "In a year and a half." "Does Luke know?" "No. I want him to enjoy his time here for as long as possible." "I understand. I won't tell him, then. Goodbye, Matthew. See you later."

The door closes after him as Thomas walks out the door, processing the fact that in eighteen months, he will never see his sister, brother in law, nor his nephew or adorable niece again. Thomas turns the corner, thinking about that blasted box that both saved and ruined his life.

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Macchi-chan

- Wow. Finished that in a week and a half. So, how was my little "surprise ending?" Thank you for following and favoriting me and my story. I am really proud and sad that the story is over, seeing as how it's my FIRST FINISHED STORY! (oh, please review so I get more money for more V-raptors…and disclaimer people! And check out my other stories too! Thank you BetsyFriday, and I love you all!

(you have _no _idea how badly I wanted to make this twincest…especially since I read all those Vocaloid fanfics recently…especially RinxLen ones…) Love 'ya!


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